Texas Senate Passes Scrap Tire Bill

S.B. 570, a bill proposed by State Sen. José Rodríguez that outlines methods by which tires may be disposed and improves state enforcement capabilities, passed the full Texas Senate April 4 and was sent to the House for consideration.

“This comprehensive bill is the result of work by a large stakeholder group over the past several years and is supported by industry leaders, who are involved with tires from cradle to grave; public health and environmental advocates; and cities and counties who are often saddled with the costs of clean up and must deal with the threat of fires, contaminated waterways, and disease,” Sen. Rodríguez said. “The goal is to guarantee bad actors are stopped without overregulating the many model industry participants across the state.”

More than 36 million tires are discarded each year in Texas, roughly one and a half tires for every person residing in the state.

Of these, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) reports in 2015, 32.4 million used/and/or scrap tires were managed and diverted to beneficial end uses including tire derived fuel, crumb rubber production, use in land reclamation projects, resale of used tires, production of landscape mulch and for proper landfill disposal.

Illegal tire disposal has been an ongoing problem in Texas for years. It is often a result of unlicensed scavengers culling and stealing used tires from generators then dumping their rejects, costing the state millions of dollars in cleanup. S.B. 570 seeks to remedy these issues.

S.B. 570 key provisions include:

• secure storage of scrap and used tires by any party who stores tires on their premises.
• improved tracking of scrap tires and enforcement of proper disposal.
• codifies existing Texas Administration Code provisions that require retailers to use only those transporters registered with the TCEQ to transport used and scrap tires, and require transporters and processors to register with the TCEQ and submit annual reports to the agency.
• requires annual renewal of registrations for tire transporters and processors on an annual basis to maintain accurate and up-to-date records. Transporters and processors would need to secure financial assurance. that could only be used to aid TCEQ in the cleanup of abandoned sites.
• requires TCEQ to issue decals or stickers to readily identify registered transporters.
• makes violations of these provisions subject to existing state civil and criminal penalties for other environmental violations.

© Scrap Tire News, May 2017